Seminole bear-resistant cans to roll out before end of month

June 7, 2014|By Stephen Hudak, Orlando Sentinel

Garbage-haulers will make bear-resistant trash cans available to Seminole County customers before the end of June.

So far, about 200 residents have signed up to buy the $180 lock-top containers from the county's contracted haulers, Advanced Disposal and Waste Pro, said Johnny Edwards, Seminole County's solid-waste manager.

Using a grant provided by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, the county has enough money to give a $40 incentive to each of the first 500 residents who buy the 65-gallon containers and pay the $60-a-year pickup fee required by the haulers.

State wildlife officials think voracious and opportunistic black bears are often drawn into Florida neighborhoods by unsecured curbside trash, which provides the animals an easy meal.

"Bear-resistant" containers have helped reduce human-bear conflicts in other communities because the large creatures cannot pry the tops open as easily as they can rip open common garbage bins.

In a span of five months, two women were severely injured by bears near their homes in Seminole County, where residents lodged more bear-nuisances complaints with FWC last month than residents in any of Florida's other 66 counties.

Of the 68 bear-nuisance calls from Seminole County, nearly a third involved bears and garbage.

The morning of May 22, a 77-year-old woman in Buckingham Estates, a gated neighborhood off Markham Road, tried to shoo a bear from her garbage, swatting at the beast with a rolled-up newspaper and then chasing it in her pajamas and slippers.

Her caregiver called FWC and was told to advise her client to "not try that again."

The same week, Patricia Zarek, 81, complained to FWC about a bear that barged into her garage, found nothing in her garbage, then opened the freezer and snatched a bag of walnuts. She said the garage door was left open by mistake for 10 minutes.

When her Maltese, Gucci, started fussing, Zarek investigated and found the bear in the driveway, munching on nuts.

Asked whether the close encounter would lead her to buy a "bear-resistant" can, she said she had a better option: "I've got two shotguns, and they're loaded."